<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Turbulence by Jael</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26803591">Turbulence</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jael/pseuds/Jael'>Jael</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Break Up, Drama, F/F, F/M, Leonard Snart Lives, So don't ignore the tags and then yell at me, There is Avalance but it doesn't stick, This is ultimately CaptainCanary</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:01:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,904</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26803591</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jael/pseuds/Jael</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard Snart is back. What does that mean for Sara...and Sara and Ava?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>CaptainCanary - Relationship, Sara Lance/Leonard Snart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>90</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Hell of a Thief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonydreams/gifts">dragonydreams</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi, folks. Hope you're all well. This is the first thing I've managed to finished in a long time, and it feels pretty good. Hopefully it will kick off more inspiration to finish other things. </p><p>As I warned in the tags: This is NOT an Avalance story. I liked Ava far more as an antagonist and I don't think she and Sara work well together at all. You've been warned. In the end, I'm all about CaptainCanary.</p><p>I own caitastrophe8499 a huge debt for inspiring this story with her "Hello, Goodbye," and there are definite similarities. I hope she will take this humble attempt as an homage. :) </p><p>Many thanks to LarielRomeniel and Pir8grl for giving this a read. And happy birthday to Dragonydreams! </p><p>CC forever. :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Somehow, no one bothered her.</p><p>Sara sat at the desk that had once been Rip Hunter’s, in the office that had once been Rip’s, on the ship that had once been Rip’s, and leaned back, staring at the ceiling…thinking about the team that’d once been Rip’s. Sort of, anyway. He’d recruited them, certainly, for his own purposes, but they’d all gone along for their own reasons. She had. The others…Mick, Ray, Stein and Jax, Kendra and Carter…had too.</p><p>Leonard had.</p><p>She took another deep breath. Let it out. That was one of the first times she’d let herself think of him since the Oculus, though the doppelganger Snart and Leo had intruded on that conviction. Perhaps that had been a mistake. Because…because now, now that he was <em>back</em>, she was woefully unprepared to deal with these stupid feelings.</p><p>Not even Gideon could say why it taken more than four years for that flare of energy to spike near the former Vanishing Point. She’d told Sara, who’d directed the Waverider and its team there to investigate, just in case it was some new and weird threat to Earth or the timeline…because, really, new and weird threats seemed to be what they specialized in.</p><p>No one had expected the energy flare to divulge one rather unsteady and somewhat confused Leonard Snart (original version), who’d gone to his knees on the scarred rock as the members of the current incarnation of the Legends had stared at him, most of them unknowingly. He’d muttered Mick’s name in confusion, then fixed on Sara with that ice blue, intense gaze she remembered so well.</p><p>And he’d staggered to his feet as she involuntarily took a few steps toward him, breath arrested in her lungs, and she’d watched, completely leaving the others and their questions—even Ava, maybe especially Ava—behind as he took a few stumbling steps toward her.</p><p>And then, then, he’d reached out and pulled her stunned form into his arms, bending his head toward hers and stealing that kiss she’d challenged him to all those years ago. A long kiss, one fiery and somehow sweet at that same time, faint peppermint still on his breath like it’d been at the now-longer-existing Oculus, and heaven help her, Sara soon realized she’d put her arms around him, too, and she was kissing him back.</p><p>Except for Mick’s somewhat gleeful chuckle and Constantine’s rather evil one, it’d been quiet around them when they’d parted some time (probably just a minute or two, really) later. Leonard had stumbled again, then, and Mick had approached, starting to say something before shrugging and then just picking his oldest friend up like he was a child, carrying the somewhat disoriented Leonard back toward the Waverider. Sara had taken a deep breath, getting her bearings, then looking at the teammates who won varied expressions of amusement (Constantine and Zari), bewilderment (Behrad and Nate), and absolutely blankness (Ava).</p><p>She’d managed a few words (former Legend, one of the originals, thought dead, hero, etc.) as they headed back to the ship, but she was pretty sure shock made her somewhat incoherent, and no one else seemed at all inclined to interject or question at the moment—not even Constantine, which she’d decide later was rather odd. They’d made it back to the Waverider, strapped in—including Mick, who reported that he’d left Leonard safety in the medbay—and gotten Gideon’s confirmation that they’d indeed found the source of the energy and that that source was cleared to jump to the temporal zone.</p><p>And so they had.</p><p>And here Sara was. Currently more in communion with Rip’s old tendency to hide in the temporal zone and avoid his team than she’d ever been before.</p><p>She should talk to Leonard, she thought, still staring at the ceiling. Gideon had informed her that he’d gotten a clean bill of health (including confirmation of his identity, thanks to the right forearm of her making) and that Mick had installed him, apparently of his own volition, in one of the empty rooms, complete with the boxes of his possessions they’d stowed away four years ago. She should ask if he’d been…somewhere…during those four years. If he’d been at all aware of the passage of time. If he knew…if he…</p><p>No, she should talk to the other team members. Tell them who this mystery person on the ship was. What he’d done, how they’d thought he’d died. In Nate and Constantine’s cases, to differentiate him from other versions of himself that they’d met before.</p><p>No.</p><p>She should really talk to Ava. Sara closed her eyes. She owed her girlfriend an explanation of that kiss. That Leonard probably hadn’t realized how much time had passed. That they’d only been friends. That Sara’d just been so relieved and shocked to see him that…</p><p>She didn’t want to talk to Ava. Ugh. She was an awful girlfriend, Sara decided, still staring at the backsides of her own eyelids. She could already see how this was going to go. Ava would forgive her for that kiss…for returning that kiss…but she’d suggest, tactfully, that Leonard would want to return to Earth after all this time away, that of course he couldn’t stay on the team, which had changed so much, and that they didn’t need another…crook…</p><p>Crook. Assassin. Card games and long conversations, sparring and having each other’s backs and “that isn’t you anymore.” Sara opened her eyes, surprised to find a few teardrops on her lashes. No, Ava wouldn’t like it at all. Hell, Leonard was <em>everything</em> she disliked. And he would be a constant reminder to Sara that she’d once been the same way, and Ava…</p><p>She was on her feet before she’d finished the thought—thoroughly unwilling, right now, maybe ever, to finish that thought. She needed to talk to Len. To know that it was <em>him</em>. That he was OK. That he understood how much was different.</p><p>That, maybe, he’d forgiven her for leaving him there, at the Vanishing Point, as the world was falling apart around them.</p><hr/><p>Leonard’s door was closed, but Sara had barely halted in front of it before it slid open…whether because of Gideon’s intervention or Leonard’s, she wasn’t sure. Either way, she hesitated before walking in, memory rising up to choke her…but with it, a sense of duty still too strong to resist.</p><p>Leonard was sitting on the bed, hands loosely clasped in front of him, looking down at a few boxes on the floor—ones labeled only with a rough “LS,” thanks to Mick. So little to represent a life, really, and Sara stopped in her tracks, watching, suddenly painfully aware of that. And of how she, herself, had turned her back on that life and its memory, pretending that she’d never cared, quickly forgotten, failed to mourn…</p><p>“Pretending” being the key word.</p><p>But then Leonard glanced up, blue eyes guarded, and she froze. They stared at each other, long moments passing before Sara cleared her throat, moving over to rest her back against the wall, letting the door slid shut behind her.</p><p>“How are you?” she asked, a bit guardedly, trying not to look directly at those blue eyes—though looking at the rest of the starkly empty room seemed awkward as well. “I know Gideon said you’re doing OK, but…”</p><p>A long pause. Then Leonard made a noise that seemed a bit between a chuckle and a sigh, meeting her eyes despite her attempted avoidance, shoulders straightening a bit out of their slump.</p><p>“OK,” he allowed, the long-missed drawl raising the hairs on Sara’s arms, though she resisted reacting more. “Steadier. Gideon said it was just…” He seemed to be searching for words. “…a reaction to coming out of suspended animation. After an extended time.”</p><p>Sara nibbled her lip, watching him. “So it was…how long did it feel like? To you?”</p><p>Leonard met her eyes despite her attempt at avoidance, waiting another moment before answering. “Hard to say,” he told her, finally. “In some ways…minutes.” His gaze rather obviously dropped to her mouth before he looked away again, Sara flushing a bit at the memory of their kiss at the Oculus wellspring. “In some ways, a lot longer. Years of dreams.” A shrug. “Flashes of things that…apparently weren’t really…real…”</p><p>His voice trailed off, and he looked back at her, his gaze flickering oddly. For some reason, she found herself flushing again, but she refused to look away, searching for her voice as the silence stretched on.</p><p>“Mick filled you in?” she managed finally. “About…what’s happened? Over…the past four years?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Leonard did look away, now, fidgeting a little, glancing down as his boxes before looking back up at her. “Sorry to hear about the professor.” The real regret in his voice modulated a little, then. “And Rip. Glad the kid and Raymond are OK, though. And that Savage is dead. Heard from Bird Girl at all?”</p><p>Sara’s lips twitched despite herself as he notably avoided mentioning Carter. “No,” she said with a sigh, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. “I wish we did. But Jax is a dad…I know!” at his expression, “and Ray is really happy, so…”</p><p>“Life moves on.” Leonard’s expression twisted a little. “Mick seems all right,” he said quickly, then, “Lisa?”</p><p>The single word was enough. Sara closed her eyes, imagining her one meeting with Leonard’s sister, and sighed.</p><p>“She’s OK,” she said, opening them. “Cisco sort of keeps tabs on her. She…didn’t take the news of your…death…well, but last I knew, she was traveling, sort of trying to find herself. She’s OK,” she repeated.</p><p>Leonard didn’t look entirely convinced by that statement, but he didn’t argue. He did glance away, again, obviously hearing what she didn’t say, and the silence stretched out, longer than it had before.</p><p>Sara used the moment to study him, taking in details she hadn’t noticed before. He looked no different, she thought with a pang, from the moment she’d left him at the Oculus—no more lines around his eyes, no more gray in his hair. They were that much closer in age now, not that Sara had ever cared about that.</p><p>Not that it mattered. Because…</p><p>Leonard looked abruptly back at her, startling Sara with the intensity of those long-missed blue eyes. “Sorry,” he said abruptly. “For…stealing that kiss…” His voice went down a bit with those words, almost as if he were backing away from the meaning behind them. “…in front of your girlfriend.”</p><p>Calm acceptance. Nothing more. But also no hint of the good-natured humor that might have been there, once.</p><p>Sara waited a moment, but he said nothing more. She wanted to make a joke about him being a hell of a thief, after all, but she remembered the way he’d looked at her in her room that night, the complicated meld of betrayal and attraction and possibility that’d still hung over them, and…</p><p>That was the hell of it, she thought abruptly. It was still there. All of it. The air was charged here and now, and Sara could slip back into the banter and give-and-take and flirtation so easily, but Leonard was letting her choose. Because Sara had someone now, and they might not be OK with it, and…</p><p>He still wanted that future, she realized, staring at him. The one he’d alluded to so long ago, for “you and me.” But he wouldn’t do a damned thing about it, because Sara had moved on, not unless she…unless…</p><p>Sara promptly panicked at the rush of <em>feelings</em>.</p><p>“Ava gets it,” she blurted out, desperate to distance herself from her own thoughts. “She knows we’re…friends. It’s OK.” She rushed onward, trying to ignore how his eyes flickered again. “But…did Mick tell you about Lita?”</p><p>“Who?”</p><p>If it took telling her teammate’s news before he could to distract them both…well, Sara had never claimed to be perfect.</p><hr/><p>“What do you mean, it’s none of my business!?”</p><p>Gideon’s voice remained calm even though Ava’s didn’t, the AI’s tone bland and professional—the things Ava usually tried to be. “I’m not going to betray Captain Lance and Mr. Snart’s privacy. If you wish to know what they’re discussing, I suggest you ask them.”</p><p>Hard not to think that there was certainly a touch of emphasis there, one rife with criticism. Ava frowned, shaking her head at herself. She was attributing motive and opinion to a computer, she told herself firmly, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at the screen before her. Granted, one that was refusing to obey her, but…</p><p>“I’m co-captain,” she said reasonably, “I need to know what’s going on onboard this ship.” And she knew just enough about this Leonard Snart—even without that thoroughly inappropriate kiss!—that she didn’t trust him. And beyond that, what if he wasn’t what he appeared to be at all? Sara could be in danger.</p><p>Sara, of course, could take care of herself. But…</p><p>“I would alert the team if there were any danger,” Gideon informed her. Hard not to take that wording as a bit of a slap. <em>The team</em>. And Ava didn’t belong yet. Not quite.</p><p>Sighing, she turned away from the console, frowning to herself as she sorted through the options.</p><p>She trusted Sara. Of course she did. She had no reason not to, right? That kiss had very definitely been on this Snart’s part, even if Sara had leaned into it, had then stared at the man like he was some sort of a dream come true.</p><p>And well, of course he was, right? She knew Sara carried the weight of the people she’d lost. And he was apparently one of them, so course she’d want him back, and…</p><p>Ava closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She trusted Sara, she reminded herself. Very much. But…that didn’t mean she had to trust this Snart. This clear and present reminder that Sara used to be a very different…Sara…and…</p><p>“Gideon!” she said, turning back around and raising her voice just a little. “Pull up all the information you have on Leonard Snart.” The computer—the AI, Sara insisted—wouldn’t be able to refuse that, a fairly basic request about Legends past or present.</p><p>And Ava wanted all the info she could get.</p><hr/><p>“So. They actually got married.” Leonard looked, frankly, a bit amused, even after Sara had taken the plunge and explained the whole Earth-X thing (including Leo and Ray Terrill) and Barry and Iris’ eventual nuptials. “Good for the kid. Probably be mini speedsters running around at some point, I imagine.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t stun me.” Sara caught herself smirking at him, considered pasting on a more captain-ish, serious expression, and then immediately discarded the idea. She was, she realized, enjoying herself and far more relaxed than she’d been in quite a while. She shifted where she was still sitting, back against the wall, and wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her chin on them. “There have been stranger things over the past four years.”</p><p>Leonard’s returning smile flickered a little at the reminder of how much time had passed, and Sara mentally kicked herself for that. But then he shrugged, stretching his own long legs out in front of him as he leaned back against the bed, and they regarded each other across the space between them.</p><p>“Kinda surprised ol’ Rip wound re-creating the Time Masters, after everything,” he said after a moment. “But you said they’re gone?”</p><p>“Time Bureau.” Sara fidgeted a bit, inclined to agree but suddenly feeling like she was betraying Ava, who she knew still missed the steadiness, regimentation, and rules of the bureau. “They weren’t…the same. Not really.” Though she’d certainly once thought they could have become the same. “Rip put a lot of…” Call it what it was. “…bureaucracy in place, to try to make them accountable.”</p><p>Leonard muttered something about bureaucracy under his breath, and Sara smirked at him again despite herself. With a sigh, she stretched her own legs out, suddenly wishing she’d brought the deck of cards tucked away in her desk, a deck she hadn’t even touched since…</p><p>“Are you going to stay?” she asked suddenly, meeting Leonard’s eyes. “On the ship.” She shouldn’t sound so eager, but she knew she did. “I…we missed you.”</p><p>Len studied her in return, expression serious, gaze direct. “Maybe,” he said after a few moments. “Need to get myself a new cold gun.” He smirked then, as Sara sighed. “Gotta intimidate the hell outta Raymond for that, when I can.”</p><p>“By all means,” Sara told him, mock-seriously. “We…ah…could drop in on Team Flash, show that you’re alive, put some feelers out for Lisa’s whereabouts, get Cisco to build you a new gun. It’ll be a few days, because we were pretty deep in the time stream, though.”</p><p>“Sounds good. Gotta look forward to spooking Allen.” Leonard paused. The silence drew out between them, not uncomfortable but a little charged again, especially since they were meeting each other’s eyes now, and Sara for one was amazed at just how familiar and comfortable it all felt.</p><p>“I’ll decide by then,” he told her after a few minutes, tone serious, gaze direct. “If I’m staying.”</p><p>Sara was a little startled by how much the idea that he might leave hurt. Because it did. A lot.</p><p>But… “Sounds good,” she repeated. “By then.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. All of Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ava was sitting on the bridge, letting all she’d learned percolate through her thoughts and trying not to worry about why Sara had been in Snart’s room for going on two hours, when she saw a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye.</p><p>She glanced up, relief rushing through her as she watched Sara stroll onto the bridge, looking a bit distracted but thoroughly fine…and, well, unmussed. Ava got to her feet, watching as her girlfriend went to one of the Gideon’s consoles and pulled up a time map, studying it briefly before lifting her voice.</p><p>“Gideon,” she said, “set a course for Central City, current time for us.”</p><p>“Yes, Captain Lance.”</p><p>So, they were taking him back. Ava closed her eyes, feeling another rush of relief, incredibly pleased that she wouldn’t have to try to persuade Sara after all. Mick would probably go with his criminal partner too, removing yet another source of trouble and insubordination on the ship. She was certain she could find a few new people for the team if Sara wanted, perhaps former bureau members who understood what discipline and chain of command were, but for now…</p><p>She stood, smiling at Sara, unable to keep from noticing that while Sara smiled back, the expression didn’t really meet her eyes. Well, this whole thing had been very unsettling, she decided charitably. Sara would bounce back.</p><p>“Are you OK?” she asked gently, letting her earlier irritation with Sara’s long stay in Snart’s room run away. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you were…hoping for better.”</p><p>Sara blinked at her as she turned away from the console. “What?” she asked, clear surprise coloring her tone. “Better than what? Everything’s fine.”</p><p>Perhaps Ava had misjudged this. Maybe Sara had always seen through her teammate. “Well…I know you were two of the original Legends. I could see where you might have some…nostalgia…”</p><p>Sara hesitated. Ava realized that she couldn’t really read Sara’s expression and bit back a new wave of worry and irritation. But she was patient. She could afford to be…right?</p><p>“Look, I’m just saying that I understand, OK?” she said, folding her arms and trying not to sound annoyed. “But that’s the past and they’ll be the Flash’s problem now, right? We’ll fill things in…”</p><p>“Wait. What?” Sara had her hand up now, and she looked just as annoyed as Ava was trying not to. “Are you talking about Len…Leonard? He’s not leaving. At least, he’s not sure yet.”</p><p>Ava’s jaw dropped at that very familiar “Len.” Something, she realized, was very wrong here. Even more wrong that she’d thought.</p><p>“Sara,” she said slowly, studying her girlfriend. “I just read up on all the older files…from before the Legends…that Gideon has on him. This Snart…”</p><p>“<em>Leonard</em>.”</p><p>“…he’s not the sort you want trying to fix time. To fix anything!” Ava gave up, throwing her hands in the air. “He’s…he’s a crook and a murderer and he nearly killed the Flash several times. The <em>Flash</em>. Your friend? And ally? Why are you OK with that? Even if Director Hunter recruited him once…”</p><p>But Sara’s eyes were flashing now, and Ava realized with a sinking heart that she wasn’t going to listen to reason.</p><p>“His name is Leonard,” she said coldly, folding her own arms and looking at Ava like she hadn’t understood a word the other woman had uttered. “And he’s a hero. A <em>hero</em>, Ava. He destroyed the Vanishing Point knowing that he’d be killed…”</p><p>“And yet here he is!”</p><p>“…and he’d saved all of our lives even before that. More than once. He was trying to be better. Just like I was. He helped me…”</p><p>Ava had had enough. “You’re nothing like him! Nothing!” she told Sara, her voice rising. “I know you, Sara! You’re a good person. This Snart isn’t.” She waved a hand at the console. “I’ve read enough. He’s a liar and a thief and a killer…he’s <em>nothing</em> like you.”</p><p>Sara stared at her a long moment, anger fading from her features, face becoming expressionless. Long enough, in fact, that Ava began to hope that she’d gotten through.</p><p>And then…Sara turned away.</p><p>“No,” she called back quietly over her shoulder as she walked off the bridge. “I killed a lot more people than he ever did.”</p><p>And to that, Ava had no reply.</p><hr/><p>Because nothing, of course, could ever go fully according to plan on the Waverider, the trip toward Central City stretched past the norm nearly immediately. It had to do, Gideon informed them, with navigating some complicated currents in the time stream first before making a time jump and then crossing the physical distance.</p><p>Sara was alternately glad that the delay existed and ready to pull her hair out because of it. The atmosphere on the Waverider, to be honest, was…complicated.</p><p>Ava kept trying to talk to her, but Sara didn’t want to talk. Or she sort of did, but she had no idea what to say, especially since Ava was stubbornly maintaining her refusal to entertain even the idea that Leonard might be a different person than he’d once been. It made her wonder why Ava was so willing to believe that <em>Sara</em> was a better, different person—or did she? Did she think Sara had exaggerated her past? Or was it OK because…what?</p><p>Ava was also thoroughly refusing to talk to Leonard, or to even be in the same room. If he was in the galley, she’d skip a meal rather than enter. If he entered the bridge, she’d find a reason to leave. Leonard seemed to be pretending that wasn’t happening, going about his business and neither seeking out trouble nor changing his path to avoid it, but Sara suspected Mick of gleefully finding ways to annoy Ava by steering his former partner into her way.</p><p>She should probably talk to him about that. But she was too tired and too annoyed to do so, and frankly, if Ava wanted to continue being petty about it, she could deal with the results.</p><p>And as the rest of the team seemed to start parsing out the background here, or some of it anyway, sides were being taken. John seemed amused at Ava’s discomfort and, in addition, he rather seemed to like Leonard, who responded to the warlock’s flirtation with an amused insouciance not unlike Leo’s. Nate, on the other hand, had apparently decided (possibly with Ava’s help) that Leonard was no different than the Snart who’d been part of the Legion, and avoided the other man—which was, at least, better than confronting him. Zari and Behrad apparently hadn’t made up their minds, but Sara had heard the siblings squabbling about it and feared that was yet another wedge in the team.</p><p>For her part, she just wanted to hide from the lot of them. And predictably, when she retreated to the cargo area in which no one ever seemed to track her down, there was Leonard, legs stretched out, back against the wall. He’d opened his eyes and considered her, then smirked as Sara tentatively waved the deck of cards in the air.</p><p>As he dealt out the first hand of gin and Sara took a seat as well, she felt tension running out of her shoulders for the first time since…well, talking to him the day before. She didn’t have to wear the captain mask with Len. She didn’t have to watch her words or think about being calm and professional—something Ava seemed to do without even thinking about it, though Sara struggled with meeting that level of poise. She wasn’t responsible for anyone right now. Not immediately, anyway.</p><p>They played in silence a while before Leonard paused, seemingly taking a lot time shuffling the cards. Sara waited for him to get to whatever he was thinking, unsurprised when he looked up and met her eyes.</p><p>“Your girlfriend,” he said carefully, cards moving slowly through his hands, “really doesn’t like me.”</p><p>Sara forgot to watch those cards closely, though she knew perfectly well that meant that one or more would inevitably find their way up his sleeves. She considered (and nearly immediately discarded) prevarication and sighed, holding his gaze as she chose her words.</p><p>“No,” she admitted after a moment, “she doesn’t.” A pause. “Not so much because of that kiss as because…well, she looked you up. Your past. Before the Legends.”</p><p>“Ah.” Leonard’s clever fingers—ugh, she shouldn’t be thinking things like that—stilled and then slowly resumed. “Not so much a fan of second chances, eh?”</p><p>He could have layered a lot of meaning into those words—but didn’t. Sara gave him credit for that. In fact, she couldn’t help layering the meaning in herself. “Guess not,” she managed casually, glancing away and back. “At least not when it comes to you. Crook.”</p><p>The name actually sparked a smile from Leonard’s eyes…but it quickly faded. In a rather abrupt move, he leaned over and put the cards down between them, holding Sara’s gaze intently as he seemed to consider his words.</p><p>“I know this might seem tough to believe, Assassin,” he said carefully, “but I’m not here to cause trouble. Hell, I don’t know why I’m here at all, and not atoms scattered across space around the Vanishing Point.” He straightened, still holding her eyes. “I’ll find my second chances in Central City. Look up Lisa. Bother the Flash…”</p><p>“<em>No</em>.”</p><p>They both seemed stunned at the vehemence of Sara’s reaction. Sara herself took a deep breath and let it out slowly, considering her words. She didn’t want to bring feelings…some feelings…into it, but…</p><p>“You’re a member of this team,” she told him clearly, trying to infuse her conviction into her voice. “You were at the start, and you were at the Oculus, and you are now. You’re a member of <em>my</em> team, and Legends don’t turn their backs on each other.”</p><p>Len’s gaze stayed even, holding hers, direct and so damned blue.</p><p>After a moment, he said, very quietly, “Even if it’s the best thing for the rest of the team? And…for you?”</p><p>It stung. Because given how things were now, he was probably right, about the team, anyway. And her? Best for her? How long had it been since someone had thought of what…</p><p>“Sara!” A voice called, breaking the tableau. “Are you down here? Gideon won’t…”</p><p>And Ava walked right into the cargo area, Sara’s hidey hole, the place where she and Leonard had played so many card games, the place she went when she needed a break, and stopped dead, staring at them as if she’d caught them in the most sordid of circumstances.</p><p>Sara nearly swore right out loud.</p><p>But…no. She was captain. Err, co-captain. She could handle this. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, and neither was Leonard, <em>damnit</em>.</p><p>“What is it?” she asked calmly—professionally—getting to her feet and keeping her eyes on Ava. “Gideon would have told me if there was anything seriously wrong—unless there’s something wrong with Gideon?” She lifted her voice at the end of the question, and the AI promptly responded as if on script.</p><p>“Everything is fine, Captain Lance,” she said, perhaps just a hint of asperity. “I told Ms. Sharpe you were simply taking a slight break, but she did not, apparently, believe me.”</p><p>Ava didn’t even react to the words. She just continued to look at Sara as if she couldn’t believe her eyes, as if playing a hand of cards with a teammate who’d come back from the dead was a betrayal beyond belief, and…</p><p>Oh, suddenly Sara realized that she was very, very angry.</p><p>“Let’s take this elsewhere,” she managed, stepping forward, but glancing back over her shoulder at Len with a nod. “Crook.”</p><p>He inclined his head in return, not otherwise moving from his sprawl, but eyes—Sara could see from where she stood—concerned, with the slight lines around them tighter than before. “Assassin.”</p><p>Ava actually twitched at the nickname, and Sara quickly moved around her before she could retort, moving up the stairs to get them both out of the cargo bay. Actually, best to do this somewhere that wasn’t out in the hallway, she decided, leading Ava back to the bridge, which was, mercifully, clear.</p><p>However, Ava spoke up as soon as they got there, just as Sara rounded on her.</p><p>“Did you hear what he <em>called</em> you?” she sputtered a little, folding her arms—but then blinked as Sara scowled back.</p><p>“Yes. ‘Assassin,’” Sara shot back, voice clipped. “And I called him ‘Crook.’ It’s what we were, Ava, back when we were just two of Rip’s troublemakers.” Why didn’t she understand? “What did you want?”</p><p>Ava blinked again, then scowled in return. “My girlfriend,” she clipped back. “Safe and unharmed—even though we’re all on a ship with <em>him</em>!—and not avoiding me anymore!”</p><p>Another rush of anger at that <em>him</em> was followed by unwilling guilt at the sadness in the last few words. Sara sighed, folding her own arms and regarding Ava.</p><p>“Look,” she said evenly. “Do you trust me or not?”</p><p>Ava’s mouth tightened. She glanced away, then back, and Sara was shocked to see the sheen of tears in her eyes.</p><p>“I trust you,” Ava said shortly. “But I don’t trust <em>him</em>. At all.”</p><p>The anger rushed back.</p><p>“Well, I do,” Sara shot at her. “With my life. And I don’t see that changing.” She paused, rubbing at her own eyes. “So, where does that leave us?”</p><p>After another moment, Ava sighed.</p><p>“I don’t know,” she said unhappily. “Sara. See reason!” She threw her arms in the air, looking beseechingly at her girlfriend. “I kept looking back at the Waverider records. You’ve always seemed close with Rory, despite all his…well, everything, but this Snart was ready to <em>kill</em> Rory! His own partner!”</p><p>Sara closed her eyes at those words, taking a deep breath and trying to calm her emotions and memories.</p><p>There were a lot of them. Being stuck in the cold together. Leonard staring down Mick as his partner stood at the head of the time pirates. That one word: “Chosen.”</p><p>She remembered watching Len careen across the corridor to the ground as a pirate’s gunshot hit him, chasing Mick toward the time core, feeling the intense pain of the heat gun tagging her—and the relief seeing Leonard force Mick to stand down.</p><p>“That’s not…how it was,” she said quietly, opening her eyes, seeing Ava’s unhappy face. “It was only…because none of us knew what else to do. And last I looked, Mick’s still here.” She sighed. “And as far as it goes…I was ready to kill Stein, once.”</p><p>Ava frowned at her. “What?” she asked, voice breaking with anger and unhappiness and incredulity.</p><p>“In Russia.” Sara smiled at her thinly, realizing suddenly that Ava had no idea what “Russia” meant, to her and Len and Mick and Ray. “To keep him from being compromised. At <em>Rip’s</em> request.” She shook her head at Ava’s visible disbelief. “You know who stopped me? Who talked me out of it? Leonard.”</p><p>The other woman dragged in a deep breath and, for a moment, Sara thought she might just listen. But then Ava shook her head, expression adamant.</p><p>“You’d never have done that,” she said, reaching out for Sara, letting her hand fall as Sara took a step backward.</p><p>“I had my finger on the trigger,” she said quietly.</p><p>Ava huffed in irritation. “I don’t care,” she cried. “You’d <em>never</em> have done that. Sara, he’s got you all turned around…”</p><p>“No. You don’t understand.” Sara, her heart breaking but as resolute as she’d been in a while, shook her head. “I know you don’t like to talk about it, or even think about it, but I <em>was</em> an assassin. I was a killer. I was broken in ways you can’t even imagine…”</p><p>“You’re not broken!”</p><hr/><p>If Ava could have gotten her hands around Leonard Snart’s neck at that moment, she’d have broken it.</p><p>It had to be his fault…all these memories that Sara was dredging up, memories that didn’t matter anymore, from a time when she was brainwashed by the League…<em>his</em> fault that Sara wouldn’t listen.</p><p>Sara smiled at her, eyes sad, and Ava’s fingers twitched as her anger at Snart deepened.</p><p>“I was,” her girlfriend told her calmly. “And maybe I’m mended…or partly mended, now…but that doesn’t change that the fractures are still there.” She sighed, looking away. “And at that point, in Russia, I was still trying to figure out if I could even be whole again. Rip was all too ready to use me for those skills, but Leonard…we were both trying to be more, both trying to figure out how to move on from what we were.”</p><p>She looked back at Ava. “Why is it you’re willing to believe I’ve done that, but you can’t believe he has?”</p><p>It seemed so obvious that Ava didn’t really know what to say.</p><p>“Sara…” she said helplessly, reaching out again, “but that was never really <em>you</em>.”</p><p>Sara’s face was resolute.</p><p>“Yes. It was,” she returned sadly. “Ava…why can’t you listen? And accept <em>all</em> of me? Past and present?”</p><p>For a second, Ava wavered at the pain in that voice…and then thought of Sara and Snart, looking at each other in the cargo bay in the moment before they realized Ava was there. Nothing physical going on, but something intimate all the same.</p><p>It was more, she decided, that Sara herself couldn’t accept that she was a new person. She couldn’t accept that she didn’t need a…crook…anymore to understand her—if she ever did, which Ava doubted.</p><p>She pulled her hand back, shaking her head, and said as much. And watched in sorrow as Sara’s face crumpled and then hardened in resolve.</p><p>“Well,” Sara said sadly, turning away, toward the door. “Let me know when you rethink that. Because…when the person who’s been through it tells you…maybe you should listen?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Sacrifices</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sara left.</p><p>Ava sat in bed, trying to read, looking up at every noise outside the door, hoping…but no Sara. She tried to cling to her knowledge that she was doing the right thing, forcing Sara to see the truth, but with every moment, it was harder.</p><p><em>Was</em> she doing the right thing?</p><p>And if it drove Sara off…did it matter?</p><p>Startling her out of the thoughts, though, was a chime from the door after a few hours. Not usual. Sara herself would have just walked in. Most of the team would have had Gideon announce them. With great trepidation, Ava rose and moved slowly to the door, touching the control pad there rather than asking the AI to open it.</p><p>And Leonard Snart’s blue eyes bore into hers, his face expressionless but his shoulders tense.</p><p>Ava took a step back despite herself. But Snart didn’t follow. He merely inclined his head, watching her, and spoke.</p><p>“Sharpe.” One syllable, delivered in a voice that was…OK, really more tired than anything else.</p><p>“Snart,” Ava returned, despite herself, knowing that her own voice was clipped and rather unhappy. She folded her arms, trying to look adamant, knowing that she probably looked rather miserable instead.</p><p>Snart didn’t react to her tone. After a second, he just pulled a hand out of his pocket (Ava tensed a bit, ready to dodge or fight) and extended its contents toward her.</p><p>And after another moment, she reached out to take it.</p><p>A small, rectangular object fell into her palm. Ava blinked at it, raising her eyebrows at the sight of the deck of cards in her hand.</p><p>“Just…returning this,” Snart said quietly. “Give it to Sara, please.”</p><p>Ava, rather startled, looked down at the cards. A regulation deck, to her eyes, edges worn and soft, well-used. Why…</p><p>“Sara doesn’t play cards,” she said unthinkingly, glancing back up at Snart and catching a flicker of…something…on that stoic face at her words. He opened his mouth, then closed it, shrugging, stuffing both hands back in his pockets.</p><p>“Still,” he said curtly, starting to turn away…and then paused.</p><p>“Oh,” he said over his shoulder, “and by the way…I’ll be leaving when we get to Central. So don’t take it out on Sara, all right?”</p><p>Ava, still surprised by the cards—had Sara and Snart been playing cards when she’d found them in the bay? She sort of remember something sitting on the ground—glanced up at him, a bit of anger rising.</p><p>“Take what out on Sara?” she said with irritation. The nerve of this…this…</p><p>Snart shrugged again, one-shouldered. “Jealousy?” he asked, apparently rhetorically, meeting her eyes again. “Anger that she hasn’t changed to be anything other than what she is…the captain of a timeship full of troublemakers, and damned good at it?”</p><p>His voice was even, but anger surged again. “I don’t want her to change,” Ava snapped. “What gives you the right…”</p><p>But Snart was shaking his head again. “Never mind,” he muttered, taking another step back. “I don’t…fuck.” The ice-blue eyes narrowed. “Just…she’s amazing. And I’m doing this for her. Don’t mess it up.”</p><p>And he turned and stalked away, leaving Ava staring after him in disbelief.</p><hr/><p>Sara never did come back to their room that night.</p><p>Ava saw her the next morning, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands as she leaned on a console on the bridge, apparently chatting with Gideon. Sara looked up, her eyes going wary as she saw her girlfriend, and Ava’s heart contracted again.</p><p>Did Sara really think she couldn’t be her true self with Ava? The very idea was absurd, but…Ava’s fingers closed around the deck of cards in her pocket.</p><p>Absurd, she told herself again, firmly. Just because she wouldn’t let Sara beat herself up about…past misconceptions…didn’t mean that Sara couldn’t be herself.</p><p>But she’d seen that wary expression far too often lately—and it was directed at her. When it should be directed at Snart!</p><p>“Morning,” Sara said evenly, though, as Ava approached.</p><p>“Morning.” Ava bit her lip, leaning against the console too. “Anything new?”</p><p>“Nah.” Sara met her eyes, then glanced away. “Still on course. Expecting some turbulence, but nothing bad.”</p><p>Ava nodded and waited, expected Sara to mention Snart’s decision to stay in Central. But…she didn’t.</p><p>Did she not know? Ava had rather thought that Snart’s appearance at the door last night had been because Sara had been upset about their…disagreement…and told him about it. But maybe she hadn’t? Maybe Sara hadn’t gone to him? Something tight in her chest eased.</p><p>Then maybe she should pass on the news, to see how Sara reacted, to start getting things back to normal around here. Because they <em>would</em> go back to normal. They had to. Just as soon as that <em>crook</em> was off the ship.</p><p>She pulled the deck of cards out of her pocket and cleared her throat.</p><p>“Snart stopped by our room,” she said, trying to keep her own voice even. “Last night. He said to give this to you…and that he’s leaving when we get to Central City.” She couldn’t help editorializing a little either. “Going back to his old ways, apparently.”</p><p>Sara’s eyes widened, but she put her hand out reflexively, and Ava dropped the cards into it. Sara looked down, and…</p><p>The change was so profound that Ava couldn’t help but stare. Sara’s face shuttered so completely and so quickly that it was painful to watch, the life going out of her eyes and the spirit from her features.</p><p>“Right,” she said, fingers closing around the cards. “Right. Well.” A pause. “It doesn’t change anything. Still on course for Central. No different than before.”</p><p>Ava forbade to mention her hopes that Rory would leave too. But she felt the need to say <em>something</em>. “Should we warn Team Flash? I don’t know if…”</p><p>Sara, who was already turning away, shook her head abruptly.</p><p>“You got what you wanted,” she said wearily. “Don’t gloat.”</p><p>Ava had been going to be charitable and mention what Snart had said about “doing this for her,” clearly the right thing for once. But the accusation—unfair!—stopped the words in her mouth.</p><p>“Right,” she muttered, as Sara walked away yet again. “Let’s just get back to normal.”</p><hr/><p>“<em>Why</em>?”</p><p>At Sara’s question, both Len and Mick looked up from where they were sitting in the galley, respective expressions disconcerted and blank. Mick immediately grunted and got to his feet, shaking his head as Sara and Len both looked at him, and grabbed his partly consumed beer.</p><p>“Oh, hell, no,” he muttered, heading for the door. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.” He glowered at Sara briefly, just a moment as he passed. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him.”</p><p>Sara ignored that as he left, advancing on Len with her hands in fists at her sides. The crook watched her, taking another drink of his beer, but he looked so…so tired, really. The sight put some pause into her fury and sadness, and Sara took a deep breath, stopping just a few steps away and simply repeating the same thing. “Why?”</p><p>Leonard took another drink and finally looked up at her, eyes dark.</p><p>“I told you,” he said finally. “I’m not here to cause trouble.” A shrug. “Seems I can’t really help it, though.”</p><p>Sara stared at him, then moved closer and subsided into a seat nearby, at a loss for what to say. After a quiet moment, he shrugged.</p><p>“I’m not blind, Assassin,” he said quietly.</p><p>Sara found her voice. “But…you’re not,” she said helplessly, leaning closer to him despite herself. “You’re not doing anything wrong!” She dragged in a deep breath. “And once Ava gets used to you…sees how…how valuable you are to the team…she’ll be all right with it.”</p><p>Right? Ava still seemed like she needlessly ha…disliked Len, but she’d come around. She’d done it with the team in general, hadn’t she? Mostly?</p><p>Sara was forced to admit that…maybe…from what Sara had seen the past few days…she hadn’t. That maybe Ava was still smarting at how different the Waverider was from the Time Bureau, still wanting to impress order on the chaos that was the Legends.</p><p>But Leonard was shaking his head again.</p><p>“Is that how you want it to be?” he asked her, voice a little rough. “Just…all right?”</p><p>Sara, still wrestling with thoughts she hadn’t previously admitted much even to herself, was suddenly realizing that maybe…maybe it wasn’t going to be even “all right.” That maybe it was all about more than Leonard. And she couldn’t help but wonder if Ava didn’t really, well, want to be here at all, but that she was just on the ship because the bureau was gone…</p><p>Worry and irritation made her lash out at the person who <em>was</em> there. “You couldn’t even tell me yourself,” she told Leonard, a little bitterly, getting up to get a beer of her own. “That you were leaving.” She sat down again, popping off the cap and taking a long drink, then resumed as her companion stayed silent. “Wouldn’t you at least talk to me?”</p><p>Leonard watched her with those wary eyes a moment, face still. “Guess I figured I’d caused enough problems for you,” he said after a minute. “Thought maybe…<em>she’d</em> give you a little less grief if I made it clear.”</p><p>He’d been so careful not to implicate or criticize Ava before that even the slight suggestion of it now made Sara bristle…even though (or perhaps <em>because</em>) she was fairly upset with Ava herself.</p><p>“I’m with Ava,” she told him shortly, taking another drink. “And she knows it.”</p><p>Len took a drink of his own beer. “I’m aware,” he told her, just a little drily…then paused, a silence long enough that Sara eyed him over her drink.</p><p>“And I’m doing this for you,” he finally said, quietly, no longer meeting her eyes.</p><p>Sara sat back and stared at him. “I didn’t ask you to,” she said, finally, admittedly a little flummoxed that “I hate feelings” Leonard Snart had said something so…so…well, revealing. The last time she’d heard him speak in quite that soft tone…he’d brought up “me and you.”</p><p>Or maybe it was when he’d later said: “Just go.”</p><p>But Leonard was apparently done. He drained his beer, then rose and turned to put the bottle in the ship’s recycling bin. Then he turned back to Sara, leaning over so close than his mouth brushed her hair and the hairs rose on the back of her neck. She was suddenly incredibly aware that if she turned her head just a little, she could kiss him…</p><p>And then he spoke, warm breath caressing her neck, and Sara closed her eyes.</p><p>“Doesn’t matter,” Len said quietly into her ear. Then, even quieter: “Think I’ve learned by now that sometimes you need to make…sacrifices…for the folks you…care about.”</p><p>Then he said one other thing…and straightened, moving to the door and out while Sara sat there, staring at her beer.</p><p>Wondering what on earth to do…and what her so-conflicted heart really wanted.</p><hr/><p>Ava, lingering just outside the galley, listening for all she was worth and occasionally taking a peek, pulled back with a rush of anxiety as Snart rose to his feet. She continued to listen but heard nothing other than maybe a whisper…and then a footstep.</p><p>Crap! She pulled back farther, then turned and walked quickly down the hall, going around a corner and as far as she could before staggering to a halt, taking a deep breath, and turning, gathering herself as if she’d simply been strolling along.</p><p>Facing the man who’d just appeared at the junction of the corridors, though, she was pretty sure Leonard Snart wasn’t fooled.</p><p>Hands in his pockets, the tall man sauntered down the corridor toward her, eyes direct and step steady. Ava stayed still as he approached, lifting her eyes to his as he halted.</p><p>He didn’t say anything. So, after a moment, she did.</p><p>“Do you love her?” Ava asked abruptly, looking up at him. Goddamn him for that height of his.</p><p>Snart didn’t pretend he didn’t understand. But he didn’t really answer, either.</p><p>“What difference does it make?” he asked her, voice low.</p><p>Ava was unaccountably annoyed by the evasion.</p><p>“I said, do you <em>love</em> her?” she repeated, staring at him, fists clenched, tone demanding an answer. “The least you can do is admit it!”</p><p>Snart paused. And then he shrugged, apparently giving in to her angry demand.</p><p>“I could,” he said with a shrug, gaze meeting hers. “Never got the chance to really find out.”</p><p>Ava took a deep breath, accepting that answer, which she’d expected anyway. In fact, she was (at this point) pretty damned sure that she’d have been angrier at greater prevarication.</p><p>“You want to stay,” she told him bluntly, knowing it to be true. “So why are you leaving?”</p><p>Snart’s expression showed irritation. “I told you,” he said. “For Sara.” He scowled briefly as Ava stared at him. “She’s captain now…and she deserves that. And she has you. I…won’t mess things up for her.”</p><p>At Ava’s skeptical face, he shook his head roughly. “I don’t poach, Sharpe. Even if Sara would…well. She won’t.”</p><p>How do you respond to that? Ava stared at him, somehow realizing that he was thoroughly serious….even while she was wholly unwilling to believe it.</p><p>Snart, apparently  realizing it, huffed at her. “So, yes. I’m doing it for myself, too,” he said, taking a step back, those too-blue eyes ridiculously direct. “Because every goddamned day I’m on this ship I’m going to want to do what I’ve only done once…twice…and kiss her again. I’m one <em>hell</em> of a thief, and I’m damned good at stealing a kiss.”</p><p>He drew in a breath while Ava was still deciding how pissed to be at those words.</p><p>“But I have more respect for Sara than that,” he concluded. “And she’s the one who needs to decide what she wants. So it’s up to her. She’ll stop me leaving, if she really wants to.” He paused. “I don’t think she will, though. Because of you.”</p><p>There was no accusation there. It was a simple statement.</p><p>A long moment, as they both considered those words. Ava—who couldn’t really argue with that, honestly—wanted to be furious, to get him out of her life and Sara’s, and hell with anything else.</p><p>But…</p><p>Sara obviously cared for him, as a friend at the very least. And…</p><p>Hell, Ava didn’t even really want to be on the Waverider. She was there because she didn’t have anything else to do. Frankly, the Legends and their antics often aggravated her mightily. But this crook…this man…clearly did want to be here, badly. And he fit in, better than she ever had.</p><p>The thought burned. And that made her snap, again. (Ugh! She was usually far better than this at handling assholes like Snart.)</p><p>“Good,” she told him curtly, ready to turn away. “We’ll be telling the Flash and his people that you’re back, too, so don’t think you and your partner can just resume your…activities.”</p><p>Snart smiled at her briefly. “I don’t plan to,” he drawled. “After saving time, it’d be…anti-climactic.” He shrugged as Ava considered taking offense at the notion that <em>he’d</em> done anything really meaningful, especially compared to all the Time Bureau had done. “And by the way, Mick isn’t going with me. He’s staying.” The thin smile twitched at her expression. “Sorry. You’re not the sort to like squeaky wheels, are you? You prefer a well-oiled machine.”</p><p>It was very true, and somehow that just annoyed her more. “As opposed to chaos? Of course.”</p><p>“Sara ain’t precisely a ‘rules and regs’ type.” The words could have been delivered quite snarkily…but they weren’t. In fact, they were somehow wistful, and Snart wasn’t looking right at Ava anymore but off into the middle distance, eyes softer. As if he was remembering something about Sara, some escapade of four years ago, before Ava even…</p><p>The thought made her words sharper. Again. “Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.”</p><p>Snart’s gaze sharpened and darted back to her. “Maybe,” he allowed. “Maybe.” But the words were still soft, and as he turned away, Ava had the feeling that he was still thinking about things she’d never be privy to.</p><p>A thought confirmed, somewhat, when he turned back around to look at her again.</p><p>“Word of advice, Sharpe,” he said. “You don’t like Sara’s past…”</p><p>“No, I don’t think it matters!”</p><p>Snart continued inexorably. “…but it’s real and it’s hers. You think it’s fair to ignore that?” He shook his head roughly. “We all got damages. If you keep insisting on ignoring hers—which she has to live with even if you don’t—there’s always going to be something between you. And she’s always gonna wonder if she’s not quite good enough because of it.”</p><p>Ava’s jaw had dropped from those apparently sincere words. As she stared at him, Snart shrugged again and started to turn away.</p><p>She found her voice. “Why are you saying this?” He’d almost seemed like he…cared?</p><p>He considered her a moment.</p><p>“Because Sara deserves to be happy. If it’s with you…so be it.” The smile this time was bitter. “Snarts never did get happy endings.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. You're a Legend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ava didn’t see Snart much after that. It was another few days, ship’s time, to Central City, but their paths never crossed. She suspected they were each rather trying to avoid the other.</p><p>Sara didn’t seem like she was avoiding Ava quite so much—she returned to their room at night, she spoke to Ava about everyday things—but there was still a bit of chill in her demeanor. Ava had decided that she could be noble about it, since Snart was leaving, and just wait it out. In a few days, she reasoned, things would start getting back to “normal.”</p><p>Wouldn’t they?</p><p>Niggling little thoughts kept telling her otherwise.</p><p>Would Sara always regret Snart’s decision to leave? Would she blame Ava?</p><p>And then, connected to Snart’s words, she wondered: would she and Sara ever really be on the same page? She’d always figured she could…could make over the Waverider to something more like the bureau. (She admitted that, now.) And that eventually, Sara would want something more than what was here, on this ship—a normal life, like Ava wanted. But…maybe that wasn’t it? At all?</p><p>And so…the hours passed. Ava thought. Sara flitted around the ship like a ghost. And Snart skulked.</p><p>Perhaps they all knew that something had to give.</p><hr/><p>As it turned out, Gideon (whether at someone’s direction or not) had indeed reached out to Team Flash, to let them know that the Waverider was delivering someone right to their doorstep. And when the ship’s hatch opened, and Snart walked out, blinking, into the sunshine of a late fall day, maybe it was really only Ava who was surprised when he was first flattened, not by an angry nemesis, but by a nearly giddy speedster all too happy to see a certain returned thief.</p><p>“Oof!”</p><p>Barry Allen lifted Snart right up in the air, then put him back on the ground, grinning from ear to ear as he did so. “I knew it!” he crowed. “I knew you had good in you! Ray told me…he told me that you were a hero…”</p><p>Snart huffed a little, glaring at the speedster as he shrugged his jacket back into place. “I hate that word,” he grumbled.</p><p>Allen didn’t apparently care. He continued to beam, glancing back at the others who’d departed STAR Labs and were watching the scene. “I knew it,” he said again.</p><p>Ava had to admit that she was fairly stunned by not just Allen’s reaction, but by Team Flash’s. Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, both of whom had been victimized by Snart and Rory, were actually smiling at the scene. Joe West—a detective!—had a certain softness in his eyes. Iris West-Allen didn’t look nearly so pleased to see her husband hugging the crook, but there was sympathy in her expression too.</p><p>Then a familiar figure darted in from behind them, jogging up to Allen and shouldering him aside to wrap Snart in a bear hug. Ava heard Sara laugh, a sound full of happiness, at the sight, and even Mick gave a gruff chuckle.</p><p>“I knew it!” Ray Palmer exclaimed, unknowingly echoing Allen’s words. “I knew you were too stubborn to die!” He plopped the thoroughly disconcerted-looking Snart back down, beaming. “Survivor, right? You said it a long time ago.”</p><p>Ava put a hand over her mouth, tempted to smile and hating herself for it, at the expression on Snart’s face. She heard him drawl something that ended with “Boy Scout” and sounded vaguely disparaging, but Ray kept grinning, thoroughly unperturbed.</p><p>He kept chattering as Nate and Mick went forward to greet him too. Ava heard “Nora” and “home” and “next time you’re back”…and then saw Snart responded with a headshake…</p><p>Ray looked visibly startled..and then upset. He said something else, looking at Mick and Nate, then looked back toward the other Legends.</p><p>No, Ava realized. He looked at <em>Sara</em>. And then back at Snart. Who looked…stoic, and didn’t follow his gaze at all.</p><p>It was fairly obvious he’d been surprised, or even stunned, that Snart wasn’t staying on the Waverider. And he’d looked to Sara while wondering why. Had everyone known that they’d been close? Or…or thought they’d been more?</p><p>Despite herself, Ava glanced at Sara too…and saw the sheen of tears in her girlfriend’s eyes, though she seemed to be trying to keep her face stoic.</p><p>Just as stoic as Snart’s.</p><p>Oh. With a flash of understanding that nearly left her breathless, Ava understood something. Maybe Sara and Snart had never been in a physical relationship—she believed Sara about that. But…that didn’t mean that their…their emotional relationship…hadn’t been just that.</p><p>So, when it came down to it, Ava was the rebound.</p><p>Sara seemed unable to look away from where Snart was still standing with the others, so Ava took the time to study her a moment.</p><p>And then she turned away and walked back to the Waverider.</p><hr/><p>There wasn’t so much she wanted to take. In truth, she realized that she’d always considered the Waverider a temporary situation. She’d always been waiting for Sara to realize that it wasn’t what she wanted.</p><p>But…it <em>was</em> what Sara wanted. It just wasn’t what Ava wanted. And while maybe someday Sara would give it up to make Ava happy, that wasn’t a good thing to base a relationship on. Not even if they loved each other.</p><p>Especially if they loved each other. You wanted good things for each other, when that was the case. Like Snart was leaving because he thought it would be best for Sara.</p><p>Well. The least Ava could do was be equal to Leonard Snart there.</p><p>She left their room behind her, closing the door with both a pang of sadness and a slight sense of relief, then paused, thinking of something.</p><p>“Gideon,” she asked, raising her voice. “Is anyone else on the ship?”</p><p>“Yes, Ms. Sharpe.” The AI sounded a little subdued. Hmm. Maybe she was finally starting to see the AI more as a person, like Sara said she was.</p><p>Oh, well.</p><p>“Mr. Snart is in his quarters. I believe that he’s about to depart, however.”</p><p>Ah. Ava walked quickly toward that somewhat out-of-the-way room, feeling a flicker of relief as she came up behind the crook, who was standing in the doorway, a bag in hand, and gazing around the small space.</p><p>She cleared her throat and he actually jumped, something she wasn’t above taking a certain pleasure in. Still, content with her decision, she actually smiled at him as he whipped around—and when his gaze fell to the bag in <em>her</em> hand.</p><p>“If I leave, will you stay?” she asked him bluntly.</p><p>Snart’s mouth opened, then closed. “What?” he asked a little blankly, or perhaps more incredulously.</p><p>Ava shrugged. “You know, it doesn’t really matter,” she told him, feeling that prickle of relief again. “I’m leaving. The only reasons I’ve been here at all were because I didn’t have anywhere else to be and for Sara.” She nodded as his expression changed a little. “But this isn’t what I want. I don’t want to be a Legend. I don’t want chaos and constant change and, and crooks and assassins and all that. I…it’s not fair to Sara, and you were right.”</p><p>She couldn’t believe she’d said that. But truth was truth.</p><p>Snart blinked at her. Really, it was rather satisfying. She’d stunned him.</p><p>“Ah,” he said finally. “That…that wasn’t what I intended.”</p><p>The note of…well, call it what it was, <em>hope</em>…was unmistakably, though. “I hope you do stay,” she added a bit recklessly. “Sara doesn’t deserve to have two people she cares about leave in one day. And it seems you’re a Legend. I never really wanted to be.”</p><p>That really broke Snart. <em>Definitely</em> satisfying. He simply stared as Ava nodded to him, then turned and walked away. Off the ship and away to talk to Sara, and then to go start building a new life.</p><p>She’d heard of some interesting opportunities in National City.</p><hr/><p>When the Waverider took off from Central City that evening, it was lighter by one person. It just wasn’t the person that everyone had expected.</p><p>Sara stood on the bridge, staring at the viewscreen, for a while. The rest of the team let her be, more or less surprised by the turn of events. She didn’t really know how to tell them that she wasn’t nearly as distraught as some seemed to think she would be.</p><p>She loved Ava. She probably always would, to some extent. But…</p><p>Ava hadn’t loved the Waverider like Sara did. It hadn’t been home to her. She’d said that…when she said goodbye.</p><p>Leonard, Sara thought distantly, had found his home here too.</p><p>As if the thought had summoned him, she heard a footstep behind her. She closed her eyes…and then opened them, smiling a little.</p><p>“I didn’t…” Leonard started, from the other side of the bridge.</p><p>“I know.” Sara turned, regarding him. “For the record, she told me so.” A deep breath. “That you never once tried to…get rid of her. Rather the opposite. You meant to leave. For me.”</p><p>He paused, regarding her in return. Then, somehow entirely unexpectedly: “You deserve better, Sara.”</p><p>Sara frowned at him. “Than what?” she asked pointedly, turned toward him.</p><p>Leonard didn’t seem to know what to do with that. He watched her quietly, more willing to be still and silent than the crook she’d known before…but really, they’d both changed. Maybe she’d spent four years (or nearly so) as the captain of the Waverider, but he’d spent four years in a situation she could barely fathom.</p><p>Finally, he shrugged, one-shouldered, coming a little closer as she approached him slowly as well.</p><p>“Than having to constantly be dealing with that kinda situation,” he admitted. Another shrug. “We were…pretty much opposites, me and Sharpe. Don’t think I coulda done anything to change that.”</p><p>There was something in this tone. Sara folded her arms, studying him. An emphasis on <em>opposites</em>…</p><p>Ah.</p><p>“Well,” she said lightly, deciding to tweak him a little and taking another step toward him, “you were in some ways. Ava likes rules. You, on the other hand, exist to break them.”</p><p>Leonard watched her intently, obviously wondering what she was thinking. “You used to,” he pointed out quietly.</p><p>“Hmmm. I never really stopped, you know.” Another step. “I loved her in spite of it. <em>Love</em>.” A pause. “I probably always will, a little. You OK with that?”</p><p>Was that a flicker of uncertainty on the face of the so-confident crook? “Not my place not to be.”</p><p>Take the leap, Sara. “You telling me that you’re not thinking about…<em>me and you</em>…anymore?”</p><p>Ah, she’d surprised him again. That would, Sara thought, smiling, never stop being fun.</p><p>“Never stopped, Assassin.” Eyes dark, that little smile she was so fond of hovering around his mouth, Leonard stepped toward her, too, only to halt just out of arms’ reach. The smile faded, just a little. “But if you…need time…”</p><p>Sara had had enough. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she growled, stepping forward, and reaching up to grab his coat. “We’ve already wasted too much time!”</p><p>And she has hauled his head down and kissed him.</p><p>Thus convinced, Leonard didn’t even hesitate. He pulled her close too, mouth parting against hers…and <em>damn</em>, this man could kiss. Sara’s knees went weak, but Leonard kept her upright, and when they finally came up for air, both of them were a little breathless…and smiling.</p><p>“Guess you’re a hell of a thief too, Assassin,” Leonard murmured again her lips as they paused. “Im<em>press</em>ive.”</p><p>God, she’d missed that drawl. “I have many talents,” Sara murmured back. “I’d like to show you some of them.”</p><p>“Mmm.” A flicker in those dark eyes. “You sure?”</p><p>“Len, I don’t want the things I <em>didn’t</em> do to keep me up anymore.”</p><p>“Then lead on…captain. I promise I’ll follow.”</p><p>And for the rest of their long years together on the Waverider, he never broke that promise.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>